# Product Category

A standard name that groups products and services for browsing and reporting.

A Product Category names a kind of product or service for browsing and reporting, such as Coffee, Equipment or Reputation Management. It names a kind of thing; it is not the thing. It is also not Fintable's money category for the P&L. BDS type: schema:DefinedTerm, term set Product Categories.

## Fields

| Field | Storage | Meaning |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Name* | Text | One short name; check the list before adding |
| Description° | Long text | What belongs in the category and what does not |
| Lifecycle Status* | Single choice | Draft, Active, Archived |
| Products | Linked records | [Products](/systems/products/entity-product) in it; set Category° on the product |
| Services - OLD | Text | Superseded on 2026-09-23; services are products now and appear under Products |
| Created At | Created time | When the row was created |
| Created by | Created by | Who created it |
| Intake Step | Formula | Routes Draft or blank-status rows to their next creation step; blank for Active and Archived |
| Category Check | Formula | Name* is filled |
| Tags° | Linked records | [Tags (mirror)](/systems/products/entity-tags); optional |

Reference grid captured on 2026-10-28, before the intake views and label updates. Use the current view names in this guide.

[![Product Category grid: one Active and one Draft category.](/systems/products/screens/products-category-grid.png)](/systems/products/screens/products-category-grid.png)

## Rules

Renaming a category renames it for every product in it. Two people should file the same product under the same category; write Description° when the name alone does not settle it. Category Check flags a blank Name*. On 2026-10-28 the table holds one Active and one Draft category.

## Intake routing

The creation intake uses these local formulas. Active and Archived records leave the routed steps; lifecycle changes remain manual.

### Category Check

```text
IF(LEN(TRIM({Name*} & "")) = 0, "⚠ No category name. ", "")
```

### Intake Step

```text
IF(OR({Lifecycle Status*} = "Draft", {Lifecycle Status*} = BLANK()), IF(LEN(TRIM({Name*} & "")) = 0, "Create - 1", "Create - 2"), "")
```

## Lifecycle

[Create this record through the intake](/systems/products/intakes-and-checks).

Draft while being defined, Active when in use, Archived when retired. Never delete a category that products point at.

## Example

Name* = Reputation Management; Description° = ongoing services that improve how a client appears in AI answers and search; Lifecycle Status* = Active.

## Next steps

[Product reference](/systems/products/entity-product) · [All entities](/systems/products/entities)